Ala. Music Hall of Fame Board Looking for Options

Alabama Music Hall of Fame billboard off the highway in Tuscumbia. It's been dark since November, 2012.

Maggie Martin/APR News

Alabama Music Hall of Fame board members say they're exploring options to help the organization survive.

Board members told the TimesDaily of Florence (http://bit.ly/16GvmLE) that they're considering four options to support the museum which has been closed since November.

Organizers say the first option is to combine the attraction with an official state welcome center. The second option is to split the memorabilia and distribute it throughout the state.

Board members say the third option is to leave the museum in Tuscumbia, and the fourth possibility is to invite proposals from other cities to relocate the museum and hall of fame.

Organizers say the attraction has struggled financially since the state stopped funding it in 2011, and the museum and hall of fame faces an approximate $120,000 debt. --- Information from: TimesDaily, http://www.timesdaily.com/

The Alabama Music Hall of Fame's board of directors has given its executive director the authority to consider offers to move the attraction to Birmingham or Huntsville.

The TimesDaily reports (http://bit.ly/Zj8kYS ) that the Tuscumbia facility remains closed with no plans to reopen.

Executive Director Wiley Barnard said he was approached by groups interested in moving the hall of fame and at least a portion of the museum to the other Alabama cities. He would not specifically identify who approached him.

A few months ago, visitors walking through Alabama’s Music Hall of Fame in Tuscumbia would be flooded with music. A look through the songs in the museum’s jukebox, for instance, and you could play anything you liked-for free.

But today, it’s a different story.

“The Hall of Fame is presently closed due to lack of funding," says Wiley Barnard. He's Executive Director of the Music Hall of Fame. "Our power is off. We’re in the dark.”

Barnard says the museum has been closed since Christmas because it owes money to the state-- about $26,000 to be exact.

It's the Saturday afternoon of the show and several Muscle Shoals musicians are warming up for a sound check. The big drawing card is rhythm and blues legend Percy Sledge, whose signature song, “When A Man Loves A Woman,” was recorded in the Shoals area. It’s a tune bassist David Hood knows well.

Hood has worked with Percy Sledge for 45 years. His job tonight is to get the band tuned up and ready for Sledge’s arrival just before show time. He says almost five decades of doing that has taught him a few things.